Manage LinkedIn contact sync in your organization

LinkedIn contact synchronization lets people set up a connection between their LinkedIn account and their Office 365 account using Outlook Web App. After they set up LinkedIn contact sync, all of their LinkedIn connections are listed as contacts in People in Office 365. They can then interact with their LinkedIn connections as they do with other contacts. LinkedIn contact sync is turned on by default if the feature is available for your region.

Tip: As admin, you probably want to keep LinkedIn contact sync turned on if your organization uses LinkedIn for business purposes, such as networking and marketing. Turn it off if you don’t want your users to download their LinkedIn connections as contacts in Outlook Web App.

Note: The features that are available to your Office 365 organization are determined by the service plan for your account. Some features aren’t available to mailboxes or organizations in specific regions.

Manage LinkedIn contact sync

Go to Admin > Service settings > Email, calendar, and contacts.

Do one of the following:

Turn on LinkedIn contact sync to let people set up a connection with LinkedIn.

Turn off LinkedIn contact sync to prevent people from setting up a connection with LinkedIn.

Warning: If you turn off LinkedIn contact sync, keep these things in mind:

It may take up to two weeks for all connections to LinkedIn to be removed, and for LinkedIn contacts to be deleted from your users’ Office 365 accounts.

All connections that your users may have established with LinkedIn using Outlook Web App will be removed. Also, the contact for each of their LinkedIn connections is deleted from their Office 365 accounts.

What else do I need to know?

The information for each LinkedIn contact is stored as a read-only contact record in the LinkedIn folder in People. The information that is synchronized between LinkedIn and Outlook Web App includes first name, last name, all phone numbers, all email addresses, and all physical addresses. LinkedIn contacts are stored in the user’s mailbox and are retained in accordance with the Office 365 service plan.